It is 4618. Aroden has been dead for twelve years; Gaspodar still reigns from Westcrown, but never leaves the Korradath and is paranoid and senile. The great houses have been feuding for ten years, with no signs of stopping anytime soon.

The House of Fraga is mid-tier; below the true contenders, but also not beneath their notice. Their lands are rich and secure from monsters; the duke is a potent sorcerer, as were many of his ancestors. The attempts to draw him into the feuds increase in number and urgency, as they might well swing an otherwise evenly matched conflict.

Duke Felip has neither the heart of a warrior nor a passion for intrigue. He has kept his head down and tended to his lands, doing his best to weasel out of sending any levies or participating in any plots, but ten years in both his excuses and his patience are wearing thin.

He follows the line of thought that sorcerous bloodlines can be diluted, and it is best to have only a few children once your own magic has deeply developed; he is still a bachelor well into midlife. He had been hoping for things to settle down, but it becomes clear that is not going to happen anytime soon and he should marry anyway. He selects a bride from a faraway corner of the empire to not upset the local balance of power, and they are married in the spring of 4618.  Late in the year, his wife becomes pregnant, and in the beginning of 4619, they narrowly catch an assassination attempt on her and the child. The evidence points to the Thrunes, but it could have just as easily been a false flag by a rival of the Thrunes intended to draw him in. Both possibilities enrage him, but he cannot prove the latter and must call up the ducal retinue and attempt to punish the Thrunes alone.

His troops are fresh and well-supplied, but fare poorly against ten-year veterans. He is quickly outmaneuvered and his forces outmatched; they manage to retreat in good order. His magic deepens, and with the deepening he gains the ability to Teleport. Viewing it as a sign, he arranges for travel to Laekastel and then Oppara, which enables him to do the trip himself, a day's round trip in four hops. He begins moving everything that can be moved and selling everything that can't be moved.

Most of the servants and retainers stay with the manors, sold to new owners, or retire to their villages and families; those that follow to the new estate in Taldor can only come two at a time, and so the process takes months.

The baby is born in Cheliax; he gives a speech to his gathered forces thanking them for their service, and promising to return once the situation reverses itself and the Thrunes fall low, and then this time the two passengers besides his bodyguard are his wife and son.

The Thrunes do not fall low; Felip dies of old age before he returns to Cheliax.